A lawyer from the
Pharisees camp questioned Jesus about which is the great commandment in the
Law. Jesus’ answer was, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew
22:36-40)
Love is introduced
into our sinful world by Jesus Christ when the word became flesh and dwelled
among us (John 1:14). We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). God is
love and He is asking us to obey His Greatest Commandment by loving Him with
all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). By relating to
Him in obedience and love, I believe all of us can truly know the joy of loving
our neighbors as ourselves.
However, loving our
neighbors may not be easy at all. Even if he or she is a Christian, it can be
tough because we all have turned our backs against God and strayed (Isaiah
53:6). We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), but
listen to what Jesus is telling us – As Christians, we are to extend this love
which we have experienced from Him to all of our neighbors. Everyone around us
is a neighbor to us. Loving God and loving our neighbors are the foundations
for all the Law and the Prophets.
We as fellow believers in Christ still have a long way to
go before we can truly live out these two commandments entirely in our spiritual
lives. I look back to what King Solomon had concluded in Ecclesiastes – The conclusion, when
all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments,
because this applies to every person. For God will bring
every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)